ho-hum ... Monday and links

It's just dreadful slogging through August, trying to get to football season, isn't it? On the bright side, writers get to spend a great deal of time out on the road, hanging out at practice, learning all they can and writing various features that will seem either poignant or silly once the season begins.
With that in mind, here are some links to start your day.

— First off, something that's neither poignant nor silly: the family of Kyle Tatum involved in an accident on Lake Martin. Yikes. Keep these folks in mind when you're going to bed tonight.
— From tragedy to inspiration: the first "USA rulz!!!!!!!!!" moment of the Olympics happened last night when our swimming relay team whipped a bunch of trash-talking Frenchmen.
In your face, Pierre. In your face.
— EDSBS has more on the international incident between Georgia and Russia.

“The speed of the Russians really surprised them,” said analyst Mark May of ESPN. “They were much faster and stronger than Georgia expected, and really put pressure on the front four with their rushing attack.”
May paused. “They also had tanks. That helped, too.”
Lou Holtz, who works with May as a commentator for ESPN’s College Football Preview, responded to questions with “TO THE BUNKER! THE SPANISH HAVE ARRIVED!!!” His whereabouts are currently unknown.

— Questions you probably haven't asked yourself recently: what is the UFL? And where is Michael Vick going to land? Peter King says the answers to both questions may be related.
— Remember BCS Guru and his series on the decade-long BCS reign of terror? Yeah ... he made it to 2004 last week. We may need to give the Auburn folks reading that a minute.
— BSR had most of the good Alabama links for this week. A few I enjoyed:
• Alabama's motivational speaker who looks nothing like Matt Foley. Disappointing, really.
• The New York Times ranks Alabama 25th.
• Finally, Rocky Top Talk gives Alabama the top spot on its list of college football logos. And yes, it's this one ...Sorry, but I must take umbrage with this. It's not that I don't appreciate the irony of a blog devoted to a rival school dishing out respect towards his own rival, but Alabama's current logo is abysmal. Forget about the fact that the elephant looks like a constipated cartoon -- what exactly was so wrong about the logo Alabama used to have, which looks like this ...I rest my case.

wlh